The two main approaches to the nature of well-being that exist today - hedonic and eudaimonic - are continuations of the concepts of happiness that originated in the times of ancient philosophy. The first approach to studying the nature of well-being is hedonic, (from the Greek hedonia - pleasure). The founders of this approach were the ancient Greek philosophers Aristippus and Epicurus. This direction can be designated as “going to the individual” associated with external objective and subjective factors. The second direction is eudaimonic, comes from the ancient Greek term eudaimonic (prosperity, happiness, bliss), used by Aristotle, who believed that the achievement of happiness depends on the virtues of a person. It can be defined as “coming from the individual” - considering internal factors, such as personality traits and self-awareness. The hedonistic approach is based on the principles and methodology of behavioral and cognitive approaches. The main thing for this direction is the connection of the concept of “happiness” with life satisfaction, manifested in achieving pleasure or avoiding displeasure. The main features of this direction are: Firstly, it is a socially oriented approach, considering subjective well-being as a person’s ability to adapt in society, by comparing oneself with others and with oneself in the past. Secondly, it is an inductive approach , which requires the accumulation of empirical observations based on the subjects’ assessment of their lives with subsequent generalization. Thirdly, this is an approach that requires strict operationalization of the original concepts. The different poles of the criterion of well-being here are pleasure/suffering, which makes it possible to set a more clear goal of research. Subjective well-being (the experience of happiness) in this approach is considered as an indicator of general psychological well-being. Proponents of the hedonic approach believe that subjective well-being primarily depends on the degree of social adaptations, i.e. compliance with the ideals of well-being accepted in society: success, the presence of business and personal contacts, resources to satisfy consumer needs. Proponents of this approach include E. Diener, M. Argyle, and many modern cognitive scientists, whose number is growing every year. Today, one can note among its supporters the only psychologist - Nobel laureate D. Kahneman. The eudaimonic approach is represented mainly by supporters of the humanistic trend. The main goals here are human self-realization and an internal compromise between following the requirements of society and individual needs. It is argued that overcoming life's difficulties and experiencing negative personal experiences contributes to the fact that a person begins to better understand his needs, opportunities, life goals, and his own boundaries, which in turn helps to increase self-realization and, as a result, increase the feeling of happiness. The foundation of such an understanding of the subjective well-being are the principles of humanistic psychology: Firstly, this is the principle of double determination of the individual: on the one hand, a person is part of society and self-realizes in accordance with the requirements of society, and on the other hand, a person is unique and has his own unique needs. Psychological well-being, in this regard, is the realization of one’s individuality within the framework of fulfilling social roles. Secondly, it is a deductive approach, directed from theoretical research to individual empirical facts. The main task of research is to clarify the meaning of a prosperous life for each individual person. Thirdly, this approach involves clarifying the meaning of human life. These studies do not aim to comply with the rules of verification and, in most cases, theoretical concepts have difficulties with/